Chapter 58 Summary
Pip returns home with the intention of telling Biddy that he loves her and wants to marry her; however, when he arrives, he learns that it is Biddy’s wedding day and she has married Joe.
Chapter 59 Summary
The story picks up eleven years after the previous chapter. Pip returns to visit Joe, Biddy and their children, and he reassures Biddy that he is content to be a bachelor. Despite his pronouncement about being happy even though he is alone, he returns to the site of Satis House to commiserate. While there, he sees Estella, widowed two years before after the death of Drummle. After a heartfelt conversation, Pip ends by telling the audience that he “saw no shadow of another parting from her.”
Original Ending Summary
The original ending, changed due to controversy about its bleak overtones, continues from the point where Pip tells Biddy that he is content with his bachelor life. We then see Pip walking the streets of London with young Pip one day when is chased by a servant requesting that he see the lady in his carriage. Pip and Estella, widowed but remarried to a country doctor, come face-to-face, and the tale concludes with Pip determining “that suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham’s teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be.”
The two themes that we originally discussed were:
- preserving a conscience over social class development
AND
- the struggle between guilt and innocence
In what ways were these two themes developed throughout the novel?
Dickens is well-known for his outstanding character development. He had a tendency to reveal truths about all social classes; oftentimes, these truths were a shock to members of society. How did Dickens make and break audience expectations about the numerous characters we meet?
Share your thoughts about the ending(s). Considering the long and winding tale that Dickens weaves for his audience, does it all tie together in the end? Are the connections that were fuzzy earlier in the novel now clear?
Pip returns home with the intention of telling Biddy that he loves her and wants to marry her; however, when he arrives, he learns that it is Biddy’s wedding day and she has married Joe.
Chapter 59 Summary
The story picks up eleven years after the previous chapter. Pip returns to visit Joe, Biddy and their children, and he reassures Biddy that he is content to be a bachelor. Despite his pronouncement about being happy even though he is alone, he returns to the site of Satis House to commiserate. While there, he sees Estella, widowed two years before after the death of Drummle. After a heartfelt conversation, Pip ends by telling the audience that he “saw no shadow of another parting from her.”
Original Ending Summary
The original ending, changed due to controversy about its bleak overtones, continues from the point where Pip tells Biddy that he is content with his bachelor life. We then see Pip walking the streets of London with young Pip one day when is chased by a servant requesting that he see the lady in his carriage. Pip and Estella, widowed but remarried to a country doctor, come face-to-face, and the tale concludes with Pip determining “that suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham’s teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be.”
Click the link to read an article discussing the two endings. It also provides reasons for favoring each ending.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/dickens/ending.html
The two themes that we originally discussed were:
- preserving a conscience over social class development
AND
- the struggle between guilt and innocence
In what ways were these two themes developed throughout the novel?
Dickens is well-known for his outstanding character development. He had a tendency to reveal truths about all social classes; oftentimes, these truths were a shock to members of society. How did Dickens make and break audience expectations about the numerous characters we meet?
Share your thoughts about the ending(s). Considering the long and winding tale that Dickens weaves for his audience, does it all tie together in the end? Are the connections that were fuzzy earlier in the novel now clear?